Adil NajamToday, June 20, is World Refugee Day. In most years, most of us may not have thought much about it. This year, we cannot afford to ignore it.
Hollywood power-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who are also UNHCR goodwill ambassadors and longtime friends of humanitarian causes worldwide, including in Pakistan, just announced a US$ 1 million donation to assist displaced Pakistanis.
As Pakistanis we thank them for this generous gesture. As Pakistanis let us also view this as a reminder of our own responsibilities to reach out to and assist our own.
Readers at ATP have already been extremely generous in this regards. In our last campaign (last month) readers raised US$ 4,780 from direct donations. On our part, we had added another US$ 2,220 to that to make it a round US$7,000 (Pak Rs. 560,000). Of this, two tranches of donation were already given – to the Edhi group in Pakistan and directly to UNHCR. A third tranche is now being sent – again, evenly distribted between the Edhi group and UNHCR. This means that the funds donated till now have been evenly given to these two.
We are starting a short campaign again today (we will keep this open for only a few days) and hope that our readers will again show their generous spirit to whatever extent that can. We remain committed to add to whatever is raised from our own advertising revenue. As before, it does not matter how much you can give, what you give, how you give, or even where you give – if you find our widget useful give here, if you can give directly to the many many worthy organizations that are doing extremely good work. But do please remember to give. These IDPs (internally displaced people) are Pakistanis who were at the frontline of a battle that all of us are fighting. Their sacrifices are for all of us, and we all must demonstrate this in whatever way we can.
Pakistan has been at the epicenter of the global refugee crisis for decades now. And with over 2 million Pakistanis displaced in their own country becasue of the havoc wrecked in the Swat region, the global refugee crisis is even more local to Pakistan than it has been before.
Thank you, Angelina Jolie. For keeping this issue alive in the international media. Thank you, for making your donation at the right time – a time when attention had just begun to be diverted. Thank you, for reminding all of us – Pakistani or not – that this is a human crisis before it is a national crisis. Even as our Pakistani heartstrings are pulled by the plight of the Swat IDPs because they are our own, let us never forget the most important lesson of all – they, and all of us, are humans before we are anything else. Thank you, Angelina Jolie, for that reminder.
Must say, I am sad to see that additions to this have been so slow. I have added a little and hope others will also.
Unlike Christian missionaries who spend millions of dollars on humanitarian aid in order to convert people of other faith or Islamic Tableghi jamat who spend money looking for some reward (hoori) in afterlife,Angelina Jolie’s work is truly humanitarian beyond creed or race.
She deserves our appreciation.
@Aisha i find it interesting you are not condemning Brad a married man cheating on his wife the same way as Angelina.
IDP in Pakistan need all the help they can get.Dirty money could be used to build toilets or buy diapers for kids as Sir Syed Ahmed would have done.
@Aishafbi786
Again, you seem to have made this whole thing an issue of Angelina’s personal life, when this article was a short, concise thank you note for her aid, nothing more. In your last post you’ve also thrown in judgements abt her supposedly failing career (as you see it) and comments abt my supposed lack of moral conscience (because I’m a man?..:). I’d like to know how any of these are accurate or even relevant. Her career last time I checked wasn’t doing badly at all. I think a recent time magazine (or some other) ranking, ranked her as one of the most powerful women in Hollywood (ahead of Oprah).
As for my supposed lack of moral conscience. What leads you to make that conclusion? I certainly don’t think adultery, having affairs, living in sin is right. I just don’t think viewing ppl through solely that lens is fair either cause it’ll lead us to overlook the good that they do and also because those are the kinds of matters that i think God is better suited to judge than me.
that was all
jock
@Jock:
As for morally depraved harlot behavior, I was not referring to her open sexual lifestyle with other single men & women (that’s another issue all together) but rather the adulterous relationship that existed between her and Brad Pitt (a married man) which she announced publicly and oh so proudly that which previously had been unknown to Brad’s wife. Therefore, as for no one being hurt by her actions, I beg to differ. Surely, you would feel differently about AJ and Brad, if Brad had been married to your sister or daughter or mother.
Excuse me but she is attempting to buy her way in an effort to change public opinion. Perhaps no so much “your” opinion but that of the American public who basically pay her salary. Despite what one might think about the lack of morality in America, and I agree on that for the most part; however, public opinion in America of both Angelina and Brad has diminished greatly since news of their illicit affair became public knowledge. Without support of the American people, her and Brad are becoming box office losers. No one is rushing out to watch their movies any more. America loves Brad’s wife Jennifer Aniston…a gentle moral human being and not so easily can they forgive Brad and Angelina for the pain, wrongs, and public humiliation they caused her. I’m sorry you disagree but when you sleep with another woman’s husband, you are a harlot. Do you think what they did was right? Should it be viewed as socially acceptable? Or is such behavior a threat to the morality of society and to family values?
Jock, I am an American born Sicilian woman who is Pakistani by marriage. And, I am a Muslim and proud of it. So, since I am an American, what now is your reasoning for thinking I see hidden agendas, conspiracies in almost everything
@ AishaFBI786
I think comparing Angelina to a ‘morally depraved harlot’ and calling her aid ‘accepting gifts from the devil’ is both funny as well as blown out of proportion. Why should we be judging other people in such a harsh way. And since when have our own people been bastions of good values and proper conduct. Kindly note that whatever her wrong-doing is…here i presume you refer to her sexually-open lifestyle, was confined to herself and didn’t do any physical, financial or criminal damage to anybody else. The same cannot be said of so many of our politicians and leaders, bureacrats and the like, who trample on others with complete impugnity.
There was also this talk of not letting her ‘buy your support and praise and conscience’. Since when did she offer to buy any of your ‘conscience, support or praise’…Why would she want your or my support or praise. We live 3000 miles away from her, with priorities and lives different from her. She has very little to gain (close to nothing) by giving the refugees this money. Its become fashionable in Pakistan amongst liberals, conservatives, upper, middle and lower class( in short everyone) to see hidden agendas, conspiracies in almost everything…even when they don’t exist…:)
jock